The U.S. Navy plans to deploy a laser weapon aboard a warship for the first time, Navy leaders said on Monday.

The laser will be deployed on the USS Ponce in early 2014.

"The weapon's quick-reaction capability matches what we see as potential targets" in the Persian Gulf, a Defense Department official said.

The laser has been tested against and destroyed drones and fast-moving small boats, the official said.
A second defense official said the laser is fully capable of being used against threats even though it is its first deployment.

"The system has been tested and proven. So while it's going on the Ponce as a demonstration, it is a system that can be used in real-world scenarios."

The first official estimated the cost at roughly $31 million.

"That could go down in the future, accounting for an actual procurement order," that official said.

In announcing the laser on Monday, Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder touted the technology.
He said the "solid-state laser is a big step forward to revolutionizing modern warfare with directed energy, just as gunpowder did in the era of knives and swords."

He also said it's expected to ultimately save the Navy money.

"Our conservative data tells us a shot of directed energy costs under $1," Klunder explained. "Compare that to the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs to fire a missile, and you can begin to see the merits of this capability."

The laser does not require "unique platforms" and could potentially be deployed on a variety of ships, one of the officials said. But another also said it does have limitations.

It needs a "line of sight" for targeting. "It does not curve, and cannot go over the horizon," the official said.

He also noted that bad weather can affect the beam, but added that "bad weather can be a factor in many of our current weapons systems" as well.

The Navy didn't develop anything. Raytheon took some industry grade fiber communication lasers, the kind used to drive long haul fiber optics links for the communications industry, and hacked them together into an array to form a combined laser of modest power. Then the laser by itself is nothing, it must be cued to the target's position by the PHALANX weapon system, also made by Raytheon, how convenient. Navy test and evaluation is a hopelessly inept joke of an activity, they haven't demonstrated anything, which is why they have to resort to computer generated imagery, aka a cartoon, to show how it works in the real world, or so they hope, how low can they go. The news release is just a scam to justify the Navy throwing more money away on nothing.

1. A $2.00 laser can blind a pilot. From that comes $31 million, (+ $1.00) to blow it up?
2. And STILL no flying car?
3. If Tesla were alive, he'd be sending Edison a note saying, "In your face!"
4. Really liked the guy who mentioned light sabers, BTW!
5. Cheney is caught saying, "Ex-cellent,... now we can being our work on the Death Star. Heh, heh, heh"
6. CIA secretly installs secret "hemorrhoid remover" under Kim Jong Un's toilet, as practical joke.
7. By the third generation of beam weapons, the government finally acknowleged they were really designed for planetary defence, due to the coming alien threat.
8. Air force versions un-official nickname "Flying Fickle Finger Of Fate".
9. Hey, now we're only a warp engine away from ticking off the rest of the universe.
10. NBC's found to employ latest tool, to pry Jay loose from the Tonight Show.

$31 million? Sure, it's only $1 a shot, but how many times will it get used? How many $100 thousand missiles do you have to fire to make $31 million? 310! That's a lot of missiles. Where is the return on investment?

funny laser already for the US you would think we would get that far in years to come not already wounder what else the US has under there sleves and for some reason this cenerty is just movin to fast bet will have are own Flying DIses fly in space and have are own moon bases in 50 year

While you could reflect a good portion of the laser with a mirror, unless the mirror is tuned to the frequency of the light it would still melt with enough power. It also would never be able to accurately reflect back to the ship, if thats what you are thinking.

That depends on how reflective the mirror is versus how powerful the beam is. No mirror is 100% reflective and will absorb some energy. Most likely the beam will temporarily be deflected until the mirror heats up enough to destroy it's reflective capability.

So on a foggy or hazy day, the laser is pretty much useless as the particles in the air scatter the energy of the laser beam. Is the Navy trying to tell us that their other weapons don't work to well in fog? I want my money back!

It depends on the frequency of the laser. Just like how laser eye surgery works, the right frequency laser will go past the right median without being hindered. This is one reason laser actually does calibration to determine the conditions along the path to the target before it fires.

Our Air Force has been trying to kill Global Hawk 30 & 40 for nearly 2 years. Yet congress keeps forcing the Air Force to buy these highly flawed machines rather than fixing them. Maybe The services can use this new laser to kill them off.

Anti-personnel lasers have been around and have been banned by international arms agreements for quite some time. The problem with lasers is that they are a very painful way to die and I'm surprised to see the US implementing these long-range lasers and simply calling them "Anti-drone" lasers. They can just as easily be pointed at a manned aircraft and melt the skin off the pilots.

All the same to me. Don't make them because they might hurt somebody? LOL. Better to just blow parts off their body with conventional a weapons? It's called war, weapons are designed to hurt people. Why do you think they come out with names like "Anti-personell mines?"

April 9, 2013 at 2:08 pm |

James PDX

So? If melting their skin off gets the job done, it's no skin off my back. What's with this new PC style of warfare where we try to kill the enemy humanely? Efficiency is the only killing concern we should have. If countries don't want their soldiers to die painfully, perhaps they should avoid conflict.

April 9, 2013 at 2:15 pm |

pasigiri

Good. Now if they can mount them to freakn sharks heads it would be freakn awesome.

So will the people who actually need this tech have it available to them or just our military? If the military has the drones, and the lasers that kill the drones, who are we really protecting with this laser tech? It seems to me we are just the aggressors declaring war on the world. What nation has drones that are a threat to anyone? Only one I can think of is us, the USA. We are the only nation on earth that has killed people using drones, yet now we have the tech to kill those drones. What's the point? Is there a drone threat from another aggressive war-mongering nation? I know of none.

If the US is the only nation you can think of to have drones, you really need to broaden your mind. Currently all major nations are developing drones. While they may not have it at the moment, it is likely not far away at all that a douzen of countries will have it. Drones aren't exactly rocket science, so to speak.

It is kind of slow to burn through the target drone. What if drones come in in the hundreds and overwhelm this laser system. Are there any kind of rays that can disable the electronic components of the drones in a quick shot instead? That's all we need to do, to make them ineffective as a weapon. They will dive into the sea themselves.

I'm all for using this in other countries. I'd worry about Obama having that power here. Socialists often find a straw man argument to attack their own people, such as "enemy combatant" "sympathizer" etc.
It starts with the leaders mug up on bill boards, dressing school children all the same and getting them to chant pro regime songs, programs to turn in your neighbors for dissent. All of the above have happened here.

@Fubarack,and let me ask you if you're so informed just when,where all this extreme security guidelines start???If you remember as I do all with Bushs Patriot Act,Homeland Security not Pres.Obama the socialist as you wrongly stated..And trust me bud he's not the shoot first ask questions later type as Bush was either in lying to start 2 wars at our expense definitly not Pres.Obamas fault ..And kids do dress the same because schools thefts were up because kids were stealing brand name cloths from other kids because they wanted to and this plan again to dress everyone the same just curtails those thefts if all are wearing the same threads right..Where is this song singing deal at and what regime songs being sung normally used ,please spell it out more clearly because I'm not in the habit of figuring out puzzles, yours as well..And your name Fubarack I apply to someone of middle eastern dissent and yes in your country maybe innocents are killed for no reason but not here so please get with the program because nothing of this nature I can relate too as well...

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